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Monday, June 18, 2012

The Difference Between Good and "Has Potential"

A couple years ago I had a really interesting email conversation with an agent who, for whatever reason, decided to be really open with me. In that conversation I learned two things:

1. I wasn't as good a writer as I thought I was.

2. I had the potential to become as good a writer as I thought I was.

Can you see the distinction?

That conversation (and some really good advice from published authors in my critique group) taught me that the difference between a really good writer, and a writer who could be good one day is translation: Translation of what is in your head to what goes on the page.

See, there are LOTS of writers with good ideas, interesting characters and engaging plots. There are (proportionally) very few writers with the skill to translate the ideas in their heads into words on the page in the way that communicates a fair representation of what they actually intended.

Stephen King calls it 'telepathy' - that ability to know exactly what details to draw out, exactly which movements and inflections to draw attention to, so as to take an image from your mind and put it into the mind of the reader.

I call it the frustratingly fleeting goal that I always seem to dance around and seldom hit.

But, whatever... my point is, anytime someone gives you constructive criticism on your work, they're trying to help you. They've seen the foundation of a really good story and they want to help you uncover it. You aren't there yet, but they believe you could be.

In my opinion, the difference between a good writer and a writer who "has potential" is what you do with that advice.

Your Turn: Have you ever struggled to get your story right? What did you learn from that process? What would you do differently / the same next time?

17 comments:

Oh, boy. About 30 years ago I thought I was good enough. I was part of a writing group(s), and one woman was picked up by Zebra (this is back in 1983), and the rest of us were still working on our novels.

The other thing you need to do is NOT GIVE UP! Every writer developes at their own speed, and back then, I didn't have enough help, someone to tell me what mechanics I was using was wrong, never mind I have loads of errors on the page.

At the moment #3 novel is with my publisher who saw something in my writing potential (^;

I think the one thing that has most developed my writing has been the fact that I'm a story teller. I mean, I tell stories out loud. All the time. I've been doing that for more than 20 years, and I'm good at it. There's an immediacy to it, because you can -see- the reaction of your audience. You know what's working and what's not. That experience has really helped me know what to write now that I'm writing.

My new goal now is to get more feedback from people. And to not react negatively to that feedback. And it's a struggle, especially if I know them. But like you said, they ARE trying to help and I am also trying to understand that.

I find it difficult sometimes to get beta readers with a critical eye. Most of us are coming at a story willing to give it a chance while editors or agents are looking at it with a "will this sell" hat. Anyone have any good suggestions on questions or prompts you can use to pull a more critical eye out of beta readers and writer's groups?

I don't know what others say, but I'd say look for groups where everyone is genuinely interested in commercial success (though they might define the term differently). My experience is that people who want to do this for profit are a lot more likely to take -- and give -- thoughtful critique. Mainly because they're a lot more likely to study the craft.

Practice, critique groups, practice, beta readers, practice, workshop courses, and more practice have helped me tremendously. You're right, good constructive criticism, next to experience, is one of the best teachers. And there's not one writer out there who couldn't occasionally use a bit of good advice.

But I don't agree (and this may not be what you meant) that we must change our work every time is doesn't strike a chord with someone. What works for one person won't for someone else and if we try to please everyone we will inevitably please no-one.

In saying that, it's important to be open to criticism and make sure you're not just dismissing it because that person doesn't 'get' your story.

I agree with you, Cally. You can't change everything for everyone. You'll never settle on one thing that would make everyone happy - and you'll get conflicting advice, so it's impossible anyway.

Personally, I try to get several people to read the same draft. If more than one person (particularly a majority) make the same comment, I give it serious consideration; OR if a single person makes a comment about something that wasn't sitting right for me anyway, I think about what they've said.

And one other thing I've learned: criticism doesn't always have to be taken verbatim. I've had people raise an issue in my book and suggest changes I didn't like, BUT I could see the issue was a problem, so I found a solution I was happy with.

Taking critique is just like everything else - the more you do it, the better you get at it, and (I think) the easier it becomes to determine which criticism to listen to.

Yep, I agree. The approach you've outlined is the same I used when decided what to take on board from my beta readers. I definitely got some conflicting feedback - shows you subjective the reading experience is. :-)

Great post. I just read that book by Stephen King and found so much helpful advice from him, including the quote you shared. I feel like there is so much I can learn from and when others have offered me advice or a critique of my work, I always appreciate it because I truly want to get better.

Stephen King says it's telepathy, but I think it's more akin to alchemy. Blood, sweat and tears all combined to bring forth a story that shines like gold. Sure the hard work comes from learning form, technique and re-writing until your MS is as smooth as butter. But at the heart of it - you have to want to tell that story as badly as any dedicated alchemist...

The words on the page never live up to my mental expectations. This is why I gave up with art - the inability to paint/draw what was in my head. I've had better success with writing but it's still a struggle with no quick fix solution.